Beach clean-up for baby turtles

Original story by Nicole Fuge, Queensland Times

SUNSHINE Coast conservation groups have laid out the red carpet for thousands of turtle hatchlings due to hit local beaches in coming weeks.

Volunteers collected 220kg of rubbish yesterday, after scouring the sand from Shelly Beach to Buddina, and cleaning up the waterway around La Balsa Park.

Sunshine Coast Turtle Care, Reef Check Australia, Sunshine Coast Council, UnderWater World SEA LIFE Mooloolaba and members of the public teamed up for the first time to clean up for the turtle hatchlings.

Council conservation officer Kate Winter said cigarette butts, fishing debris, cans, clothing and hard plastics, including water bottles, were the most common items found.

“I truly am surprised by the amount that has come up here. It’s far greater than I had expected,” she said.

Ms Winter said the collection of hard plastics was the focus of yesterday’s effort.

“We want to make sure we get as many hatchlings out to the water and in 30 years back to our beaches as nesting turtles,” she said.

“Those hard plastics float on the surface and in the pelagic phase of a turtle’s life, that’s when they’re feeding on the surface.”

There are 23 nests from Shelly Beach to Buddina, each producing between 100 and 200 hatchlings in the next two months.

The first is due in the next couple of days.

UnderWater World animal health man-ager Emily Thomas said the last thing they wanted was for the turtles to head out into a “big sea of rubbish”.

Reef Check Australia community engagement officer Jodi Salmond donned her diving gear to clean up the Mooloolah River mouth from La Balsa Park.

She came ashore with bags of fishing debris, tackle, broken glass, cans and lots of degradable plastic bags caught among the rocks.

“It’s important to have an idea of what’s not just on the beach but what’s making its way into the water,” she said.

The clean-up information will be collated into the Australian Marine Debris Initiative database.

“When they autopsy turtles, we find out what’s in their guts and then we start to see what’s on the land and what’s in the water,” Miss Salmond said.

“We can start to source track where these things are coming from and how we can make real differences.”

Wayne Foster, from Golden Beach, was among the lay volunteers, cleaning up the northern tip of Bribie Island after finding a few turtle nests on his daily walk.

“A lot of people come and have a lovely day, but they’ll always leave two or three pieces behind,” he said.

“We try and go across and if we see something we’ll pick it up and bring it back.”